| by Alex Nuti – de Biasi, Editor, Journal Opinion |
| During Gov. Phil Scott’s press conference on Wednesday, Public Safety Commissioner Jennifer Morrison provided an update on Vermont’s swift water search and rescue team. The team, with 14 personnel, four boats and five support vehicles, was initially deployed to Florida where they evacuated 20 people, dozens of animals and searched approximately 1,800 structures for missing people after Hurricane Helene’s landfall on Thursday, Sept. 26. On Sunday, they were reassigned to Buncombe County, North Carolina in the Greater Asheville area where an additional six people and more support vehicles supplemented the team. There have been 72 deaths in the county and more than 200 people remain unaccounted for. Morrison said the situation the Vermonters have found there is dire. “The conditions our team have encountered have been catastrophic,” Morrison said. “The team leader Mike Cannon reported that the situation was hundreds of times worse than he had ever seen and he’s seen a lot.” The day before Scott’s press conference in Vermont, volunteer helicopter pilots flew more than 100 North Carolina nursing home residents — most with dementia — to safety before their medicine ran out. The Charlotte Observer reports that the pilots, most members of Operation Airdrop, were set to rescue 100 children from an orphanage on Tuesday, but pivoted to the stranded seniors after the children’s supplies were replenished. “Volunteer pilots made about 20 trips in their own helicopters — from two-seaters to Black Hawks — flying northwest from Hickory to rescue 76 residents in Yancey House, Mitchell House and a few others nearby. “The U.S. Army — via a Chinook marked by an image of singer Lionel Richie’s face, with a troop from Davenport, Iowa, inside — made one trip. It was the last trip. “They had 34 seatbelts on board. Luckily, said Capt. Cody Nolan, there were only 34 residents left.” |